Promise
by BladeofMercy
Summary: Started as a one-shot about Lyna and Tamlen's first night, but now I want more from this story thanks to a 100 prompt challenge on Tumblr. Eventual Mahariel/Zevran pairing. More to come!
1. Introduction

"Are you sure, emma vhenan?"_ My love._ Tamlen was hovering above Lyna, and he looked beautiful. His brown eyes were full of love and adoration for her as his fingers probed inside her, readying her for him. They had never done this, just touching and kissing before but this was so different. Anxiety coiled in her stomach, but not because this wasn't what she wanted, she was just scared of the pain.

Tamlen was everything to her. How could he even ask her if she was sure this was what she wanted? Years playing together under the keepers' watch, scaring off shemlen and learning to hunt together. A part of her always knew she loved him, that she would want him to be the one she bonded with.

"When a Dale gives themselves to another, that bond is final. Until death that bond shall never be broken, and you will be mates for life. Do you understand? Never take that decision lightly." Their keeper made that very clear to them when she caught them kissing in the woods and exploring each others' bodies just days ago, when they were to be catching rabbits for the clan's dinner.

Lyna ran her fingertips over the tattooed vines on his chest, and lifted her lips to his, kissing him deeply.

"I've never been more sure of anything, Tamlen."

Tamlen's face fell and his eyes went soft. "Ma'arlath." _I love you. _

As he said the words she longed to hear he pressed himself inside her and kissed her roughly, letting their moans fill each others mouths. She felt the burning of him stretching her, taking her innocence. She was his, she was always his. Now she had the proof as he lay inside of her, placing kisses along her neck when quiet tears fell from her green eyes. He was the only one to ever see her cry, and he'd simply say nothing but sit beside her, wiping away her tears and holding her when needed. He was always there, and now he could be there for her in every way. Her fingernails dug deep into his thighs to hold him just where he was inside of her, and he dared not move, so afraid hurting her more.

"Forgive me," his voice was a controlled shudder. " Do you want me to stop?"

She knew he didn't want to stop, but that he would for her.

He'd do anything for her, even protect her from the keeper's discipline and simply taking responsibility for anything she ever did, even if the keeper knew it was her. All she saw now in her fearless protector was the primal need for her that had built over the past few hours, seeing her naked before him and taking her like this. They had waited long enough. She would not deny him, and became glad when the throbbing subsided within her and turned into a dullness. She moved her hips to lower herself onto him and make him deeper, and he groaned.

_Creators, so this is what it feels like to be one._

She felt so full with him, so hot under his skin and we was so good with his hands running over just the right spot of her breasts, taking her nipples in between his fingers and tweaking them just perfectly as he hit her spot and she let out a cry that died on her lips when she realized she forgot where she was.

All the nerves that coiled in her stomach left her in a loud giggle. This was silly! Tamlen was no stranger. He was not scary, and he would never hurt her on purpose. The seriousness of the moment died and smiles adorned their faces as she flipped him back, straddling him and sheathing him inside of her. His groans felt so good, like fire in her belly and he was so thick, she let out a gasp when he wrapped his arms around her and pulled her in for kisses that left her breathless as his hips bucked, pushing himself deep inside of her.

"I want you to bare my children. I want to grow old with you. I want my life to end in your arms. Never leave me."

He pounded hard and his words left her blushing as she reached the height of her pleasure, and he slowed then to a teasing pace.

She groaned and tried to push her hips down onto him, but he held her in place.

"Promise me you'll never leave me." His lips were pressed against his ears, his teeth grated as he tried to keep his pace.

She bit into his shoulder and he growled, her nails digging into his back and burning her promise into his skin. "I will never leave you. I would die first, vhenan'ara." _My heart's desire._

With that he seemed to become enraptured with need and they sent each other into oblivion whispering promises of love and devotion until Lyna collapsed onto Tamlen, ignoring the thin layer of sweat covering their skin while they clung to each other in the Ferelden summer heat.

* * *

Lyna was woken up by the feel of Tamlen's fingers carding through her hair, her sleepy eyes slowly registering his broad shoulders and her fingers falling upon the muscles of his arms, a smile dawning on her face.

"Tamlen...I love you."

The feel of him shifting to hold her flush to him, skin to skin as they lay naked under the sheets and the feel of the sun that peaked through the opening of her tent warmed her.

"I love you too."

The thought of spending every morning this way filled her with the need to feel him again despite how sore she felt inside. She ignored the impulse to rest and instead, they began to make love once more before they went to see the keeper.

No doubt she knew they were together last night, and no doubt they had some answers they needed to provide. However they'd worry about that later. For now, they had some lost time to make up for, and lots of exploring to do.


	2. Love

The rain came down hard on the forests, and it was fitting.

Today Lyna left her clan behind, and put the love of her life to rest. With all of her heart she did not believe the _shem_ who told her he was already dead, and that the taint would have taken him. She knew her Tamlen, and she knew that he was stronger than that.

With a sad sigh, she clasped her mother's necklace around her neck and took Tamlen's bow in hand. In order to gather the strength to say goodbye to the family she has known her whole life, she had to embrace the ones who were lost - the ones meant the most - and she made sure she had a concrete way to carry them with her always.

"I am ready, Duncan." She stood tall at the end of the receiving line of her family, tears streaming down her cheeks as well as many others.

The rain poured hardest then as if the skies cried for her, and when Duncan took off his cloak and placed it around her shoulders, she closed her eyes and imagined Tamlen's warm embrace instead.

Her heart as heavy as a thousand Halla, she smiled at Duncan and nodded her thanks for this small comfort.

"Then let's carry on." Duncan dissapeared into the forests and she allowed herself one look back, then she was gone as well.

It was then she swore that if Tamlen truly was gone to her, she'd never love again.


	3. Light

Lyna couldn't sleep.

It had been two weeks since she left her clan - two weeks since she left the woman who raised her, her best friends, and her lover behind.

She felt utterly alone.

_Every morning when the sun was about to rise, Tamlen would come to her. He would take her hand and they'd run through the forest, climbing the tallest tree they could find. There, they'd watch the sun rise together. Sometimes, they'd steal secret kisses, and other times, they just basked in the morning sun and held each other close - until one of them was called, and they raced back to camp._

She smiled at this memory. She swore right then that she could feel his spirit - and so she took to the woods.

She didn't bother to grab Tamlen's bow, or even slap on armor. She just ran, barefoot and wild through the forest and when she found the tree she wanted to climb she was as nimble as could be. It was almost time.

She sat on the treetop, gazing ahead and saw a giant fortress made of stone that left her jaw agape.

"Do you see that, Tamlen? I bet that's Ostagar. Duncan said we were not to far off." She clasped her hands and let out a triumphant sigh. The sun rose in hues of orange and yellow over the fortress, and warmth covered her skin like soft kisses.

"I have missed this. I miss this." Tears threatened to well her eyes, but this was a day for strength. Today she started to ponder the fact that perhaps, Tamlen wouldn't come back. He was the best tracker in the clan and he would have found her by now if he truly was alright.

_Never doubt him. He will come. He always comes._

She shook the thought from her head and heard Duncan's call, and much like she did so many times with Tamlen, she raced down the tree, and back to camp.


	4. Dark

The corrupted blood she drank left a foul taste in her mouth. Suddenly, visions of horror wracked her brain, and she fell to the ground with a hard thud.

_She had seen a dragon, and it had pierced into her thoughts and pulled him out. What it showed her then was sure to haunt her forever._

_Her Tamlen looked like a corrupted soul, lying almost lifeless on the floor of a forest far away from where she could reach. He called out to her with what little strength he had left, and then she watched as Darkspawn surrounded him - before she woke up._

"TAMLEN!"

* * *

His name fell from her lips in a howl as she awoke.

The Wardens were silent for a moment before Alistair reached out his hand to her, and helped her up.

"You're awake. How do you feel?" Duncan had pride in his eyes, despite the inner turmoil Lyna faced.

"I saw him. In the forest. Tamlen. There was a dragon. Creators...what is going on?!" Her stomach turned and she could feel the sick in her throat. She swallowed it down and wiped her lips, staring down at the blood that stained her skin, and her soul.

"The dragon you saw was the Archdemon. The sign of a true blight. As for your Tamlen, if you have seen him, it means that he has the taint within him. He is lost to you. I apologize."

For the past few weeks, all she had to hold on to was the hope that she would see her Tamlen again. Not like that, though. Never like that.

His blonde hair was matted brown with dried blood and his eyes were no longer their perfect honey color, but replaced with a blackness of a man she had never known.

"No..."

She wanted to run, to get away from this place. She was reminded of Jory and Daveth in that moment, and decided it was for the best to stay.

She was trapped, now.

She had nowhere else to go.

_"You were supposed to be with Master Varathorn today, weren't you? What made you come with me?" Tamlen prodded with curiosity, despite the fact that he already knew the answer. He always loved making her confess how she felt for him. It made him feel...proud._

_"I wanted to be with you, my little blade."_

_Tamlen squeezed her hand tightly, and they walked into the cave together._

_"Are you bringing us here to make up for what we did?" She grinned, a mischievous smile playing across her face._

_"Well, I am hoping that if we find something worthwhile Marethari will no longer be so cross with us. I hate that disapproving look she gives us when we sit together. Like what we did was wrong. Nothing in my life ever felt as right as our night together. I want you to know that. You're everything to me, lethallan."_

_They shared one last kiss, and battled their way to that blasted room with that blasted mirror. it._

_"Please, Tamlen. Let's go. We found the mirror, and I am sure it is enough to get us back in the keepers' good graces. Let's just go, I do not like the way I feel around this thing."_

_"Do you not feel that, though? It is like it calls to us..."_

_"All the more reason to step away! Please! LET'S GO!"_

_"Wait, did you see that? I saw something!"_

_Then everything went black._

_The only face she remembered seeing after that was Duncan's. Somehow she must have made her way out of the cave, and he was there. He apologized, for what she wasn't sure of._

Until now.

Duncan ordered her to meet him and the king for a meeting once she had composed herself and left. Alistair stood with her.

"Please, Alistair. I need to be alone."

"I'd rather not leave you. I know how it feels. The nightmares. The nausea after taking the taint in. Go ahead, I don't mind. I promise you I've seen worse."

With that permission she knelt on the ground, expelling the contents of her stomach onto the floor. She wasn't sure if what she drank tasted worse going in, or coming back up.

Alistair helped her to her feet and handed her a white kerchief with golden trim, and she wiped her face.

"I have a...uh...gift. For you. It is a necklace. We Wardens take a drop of the blood used in your joining and put it in a vial. Wear it around your neck. It is a reminder of those we lost." His smile was genuine and his eyes spoke the concern he tried to hide.

"Have you ever lost anyone, Alistair?" Her words were quiet as she took the necklace and nodded her thanks, wrapping the thread around her neck and tying it tight.

"Not like you have. I'm sorry, Lyna." He cleared his throat nervously and she knew right then he had never loved and lost. Not like she had.

"Let's go see what the king wishes of us, shall we?"

When the beacon was lit, Alistair and Lyna rejoiced. Then the Darkspawn hoarded the tower.

For a moment Lyna swore she heard Tamlen laughing.

Then, everything went dark.


	5. Rot

_"And you are sure it was her, brother?" Zevran's heart pounded with a fury of a stampede within his chest. He should have known better than to let her so close, but Rinna was just - well, beautiful, deadly, smart, and delightfully wicked in his bed._

_Taliesin's firm nod was all it took, and his then heart was broken._

_He loved her. There was never shadow of a doubt for that._

_Now, he remembers his duty, and his family. The Antivan Crows were all he ever was, and all he ever would be. If she had betrayed them, he would see her dead. _

_No matter how much it broke him._

_"Come, Taliesin. I know where she can be found."_

_Rinna was still laying in his bed at the Inn, in the same place he left her before he went to meet his partner. _

_Her long, red hair was curled around her neck and shoulders, a stray strand lingering over her face. _

_How he longed to push it back behind her ear and kiss her lips, just one last time. _

_Instead, he ripped her from the comforts of his bed and threw her on the ground like the deceitful whore she was. He spit on her and called her names, and she stared at him in awe._

_"Zevran, you're hurting me. What is going on?!"_

_A dark laugh rumbled in his chest and Taliesin grabbed her arms, holding her down to the ground. _

_"Don't play games with me, bitch. I know you sold our secrets. I know you betrayed us. Climbed into my bed to use me, like countless others before, no doubt."_

_Her eyes pleaded with him, tears streaming down his face as she begged for him to listen._

_"I swear on our love and my life I NEVER betrayed you! Please, whatever they told you, I promise you it was all a lie! Don't do this Zevran!" _

_Zevran spat in her face, and in that moment his heart grew dark. He watched as Taliesin removed the blade from his belt, and she tried to kick and scurry away, but in one swift moment it was done, and her throat was slit. Her eyes never left Zevran's, and one final tear slipped from her blue eyes before they closed. Forever._

_"It is done. Now leave her to rot. Let us inform the masters of what happened here, today." _

_"As you say, Zevran."_

Zevran overlooked at the marks on his hands, from when his cruel masters told him that Rinna had done nothing at all. He had dug his fingernails deep into his palms, only to stop himself from slaying every man in the room.

They offered him a contract afterward, from a royal in Ferelden, to cut down the last of the Grey Wardens. It was a dangerous mission, one he would most likely die pursuing.

_Of course he took it._ For all he knew, the Crows had left Rinna rotting in that room, and soon, he would hope to find himself rotting with her.

"I'm so sorry... my Rinna. Please, please. Forgive me." He whispered to the skies, and a gentle breeze caressed his face, and he prayed that it was her, saying all was forgiven.

But he knew better.

A single tear was all he shed as the boat pulled away from the docks of the only place he's ever known as home, and he hoped he'd never return.


	6. The Anniversary - Post Game -

**Our babies have been going through a lot these past 5 chapters - so I'm breaking it up with a little bit of post game fluff just to lighten the mood before I carry on the story. :3**

* * *

He started every morning since the first just like this.

He'd open his eyes and not move a single muscle, just laying awake and enjoying the feel of her body curled up against his own.

Today was a special day.

1 year since he met her on the crossroads. He'd intended to kill her then, never foreseeing that he would fail and she would spare his life and save it all at the same time.

Never thinking that she would turn out to be the reason his heart was aching, full to bursting with love.

He contemplated on the past year, and all they had been through.

They started out slow. She was Dalish and he was just a flat-eared assassin, but he had Dalish blood and that's all that mattered. She trusted him before anyone else for that. They shared their stories of love and loss, and he was there to hold her hand as she said goodbye to the lucky man who had her heart first, wiping her hands clean of his blood and rocking her to sleep in his arms as she wept.

He remembered the exact moment when she told him that her heart was his now, and how he finally broke down and told her of his loss, and although there was no blood to wipe off his hands, she kissed the sorrow away, and from that moment he knew that if he lost her, he would never love again.

They had healed one another, mind body and soul. Saved each others' lives. Fought together, cried together, played together, stayed together through it all.

He never found himself to be religious, but on this morning he thanked the Creators for blessing him with just this one bright light, this beacon of strength and love and hope in all that the world had become.

He had been lost in his thoughts, only startled when he felt her gentle fingertips run over his chest and along collarbone. She had a fetish with it, and he leaned into her touch, placing a lingering kiss on her forehead.

A contented sigh fell from her lips and she lifted her eyes up to his, her fingers tracing up from his chest to his cheek, her fingers running lazily over the stripes that were tattooed there. She could find them and trace them with her eyes closed, she thought. She had committed every bit of him to memory, so certain before Morrigan's plan that she would die trying to see him and her people live.

"Happy Anniversary, ma sa'lath." He took her hand that traced it's face and squeezed it gently, snaking his other arm around her and rolling her onto her back, his body nestled between her perfect legs.

He said nothing, just kissed her as she laughed into his mouth, searching for her tongue and suddenly her laughter stopped, replaced with a passion and need for her precious Crow.

His fingers, _Creators bless every single digit _ran through her hair and she reveled in the feel of his fingernails scraping her scalp, his hands grabbing to the raven black veil and tiling her head back, giving him full access to her gorgeous neck. He nibbled at the flesh perhaps a little too roughly, but she didn't care. He was marking her for the whole world to see, and it wasn't the first time. It just felt so good to be _his._

He took her hands and pinned them to the oak headboard, taking a dagger from the side table to cut open her smalls. In one swift movement he had cut even his own off and threw the dagger aside, burying himself inside of her sheath until they were full and spent.

"Happy anniversary, to you as well, emma vhenan." He replied, once they had the moment to catch their breath.

He curled her close against him once more, his fingers tracing over her kiss-bruised lips, her loving viridian eyes looking deep into his honey brown. She had pulled at his very soul the first time she gave him that look. He was wrapped around her finger ever since, and although she knew it - she never abused the privilege. Winning an assassin's heart had never been an easy task.

"You woke before me, you looked very deep in thought. What is on your mind, da'mi?"

"I was thinking on the past year, and all that we had been through together. Thanking the creators for bringing me to you."

She smiled her wicked smile and he was only helpless to return it.

"I thank them every day. You've saved me, Zevran. I don't know what I'd have done if you didn't ambush your way into my life."

"Mi amora, I often ponder the same thing."

They had made plans to go to the forrest for a picnic, but it could wait.

As long as they had each other, the world could always wait.


End file.
